GB U16: LYNCH PLEASED WITH SPRING CLASSIC PERFORMANCES

Great Britain U16 head coach Steven Lynch watched his side finish fourth in the inaugural Spring Classic tournament in Swindon last weekend, with three wins and a tie from six games, and professed himself happy with his side’s showing.

The event was organised by the English Ice Hockey Association and featured U17 sides from the five Conference regions – Scotland, North, Midlands, South East and South West – plus Okanagan Academy’s U18 side as well as the GB U16s.

GB opened their tournament with a 2-1 loss to the South East before beating Northern by the same score. They rounded off day one with a 2-2 tie against Scotland.

Sunday’s action saw a 1-0 win over South West followed by a 2-1 reverse against hosts Okanagan. GB finished on a high with a 7-0 win over Midlands. The Midlands Conference were the Spring Classic champions with a 3-2 win over Northern in the Grand Final on Sunday night. Great Britain had beaten both finalists.

After the last game, Lynch said: “It has been a busy couple of days, three games a day takes a lot out of the players, but they learned a lot.

“The whole concept of GB Under 16s is to prepare players for World Championship from Under 18s upwards and we need to know how the players handle the situation, what they do on ice, off ice and how they recover.”

Speaking of the closing performance Lynch added: “We knew they had that performance in their locker, perhaps the early games they were nervous about wearing the GB jersey for the first time, but we’re pleased they put that performance on and the people here to watch were able to see how the Great Britain U16s can play.”